I'd already alerted my colleagues that the greatest sports feat of our time was unfolding. (Yeah, they rolled their eyes, too.)

But Central Connecticut lost to Mount St. Mary's, so they won't get their first invite to the NCAA men's basketball championships, known as The Big Dance.

The much-anticipated tussle between the Central Blue Devils and the No. 1 ranked Duke Blue Devils will have to wait.

Still, it shouldn't overshadow that after 13 years of treading water in an upgraded and more competitive division, Central has turned the corner.

With a 19-13 record -- they won four games last year -- Central is one of the most improved teams in the country. Equally important is that since coach Howie Dickenman arrived three years ago, the team's grade point average has also improved dramatically, from 2.06 -- out of 4.0 -- to 2.76.

Four players have a 3.0 or better. Of the 18 Central sports teams in 1996, men's basketball ranked last academically. Now, they're eighth.

I'm a Central guy and proud of it.

I was cut from basketball tryouts -- early, I might add -- my freshman year in 1980, and flunked out at the end of the year, a victim of the party scene. After plea bargaining for a second chance, I graduated in 1984.

During my time at Central, the school was regarded as a Division II basketball power. Legendary coach Bill Detrick, whom I've run into often at Stanley Golf Course, was at the helm then.

Several of the fellas I hung out with, and still stay in contact with, played on the team. As an alum, I've always kept special tabs on the basketball team, which floundered soon after Detrick's departure.

What makes this resurgence special for me and many of the 40,758 in-state graduates is that it's being engineered by Central guys.

Three years ago, Athletic Director Charles ``C.J.'' Jones -- Class of '69 -- lured Dickenman, his old teammate and former best man, from his UConn associate head coaching duties. Dickenman was well-known at the New Britain campus, a former All-American now in the school's hall of fame. In 1996 Richard L. Judd was the first Central alum to be named school president.

``There was an era at Central where they thought that hiring a lot of outside people was the `in' thing to do,'' said Jones, who has been with Central the past 34 years as a student/athlete, coach and administrator. ``Now we seem to be in a mode where we are obviously hiring people who have a commitment or a vested interest in the university. And that has had a significant role in us rising back to the kind of prominence we once had.''

Detrick Gymnasium will be renovated next year. Talk of building a new arena is sure to gain more steam as a result of this year's success.

``We have a long way to go to where we want to be someday,'' Dickenman said. ``Certainly we're pleased that we made so much progress.''

Dickenman's undersized and overachieving band of student/athletes has the campus buzzing about basketball again.